When Gü was sold to Noble Foods in 2010, Harvey and a good friend and colleague, Mike Hodgson, decided to go solo.

"I had always wanted to run my own business and we worked
well together," she explains. "We wanted to start something from scratch." After connecting with The Collective's founders, the duo did just that, launching The Collective UK in 2011.

"Ofer and Angus were looking to expand their brand internationally through a joint venture," says Harvey.

"The packaging was so different from everything else that we
had seen in yogurts – the [shorter, wider] pot shape; the trademark black lid; the bright, colourful labels," she states. "We were blown away by the silky smooth texture and taste."

Inspired, the entrepreneurs joined forces. "It was so quick," remembers Harvey. "We signed the joint venture in January and were on the shelves of 300 supermarkets by June."

Harvey and Hodgson had built up some strong sector relationships from their time at Gü.

"Other small businesses might target independent shops first, but we knew how to work with the retailers," she says, revealing that the key was to adopt an analytical approach.

"Try to understand the strategy of each retailer – what they're trying to achieve overall, but also specifically within your category."

Their plans will seem similar, but you can often find differences by drilling down into the detail, she says, so start by considering a retailer's values and its customers – for example, whether it wants more clean and natural products on its shelves, or if it prefers businesses with a social purpose.

She urges entrepreneurs to then play to those requirements:

"As a founder who's passionate about their brand, it's tempting to
just go into Tesco and talk about your company and story for hours. What worked for us was understanding what's [on their agenda], going away to think about it, and coming back with a tailored proposition."

Harvey's other tip for small firms that want to work with big brands is to offer something in return.

For example, some of her team are Stateside right now, attending the Natural Products Expo West exhibition, which showcases all the innovation occurring in the country's organic and healthy products markets.

"We go to spot trends, examine menus and so on," says Harvey.
"It's so progressive over there when it comes to flavour and packaging, and we feed that back to the retailers that we meet."

That’s a unique selling proposition (USP), she explains:
"It’s a way that we can add value to the retailer."

The company can also report back on what's going on in New
Zealand and Australia, which accounts for half of The Collective's overall business.

One of the biggest challenges that faced the business owner was Hodgson's sudden death in 2015. The co-founder suffered a cardiac arrest while cycling in the Lake District, aged 57.

"It was incredibly hard," admits Harvey, whose main focus after losing her co-founder was to keep pushing the business forward for both Hodgson's family and the team around her.

It's about focus, which means cutting out more than we're addingAmelia Harvey, The Collective UK

"We just had to get through it together," she says. One outcome of the tragic incident was The Collective UK sharing some of its profits with Community Heartbeat, a charity that places defibrillators in remote areas.

Another, unexpected, outcome was how connected the team became. "We're closer-knit because of what we went through together,"
says Harvey. "Having a co-founder is the best; you can bounce off ideas and play to each other's strengths. It happened three years into the venture, so I couldn't really go out and find someone else."

Instead, she focused on slowly and carefully building the team beneath her. The business has 25 employees and in two weeks will close the year on £24m in turnover – up from £18m last year.

The team is currently working out of London co-working space, Huckletree. Some of Harvey's neighbours are start-ups that secure millions of pounds in venture capital and to scale must take on dozens of people at a time.

It's not a growth plan that works for everyone; huge cash injections can encourage short-term thinking among inexperienced teams and founders may lose sight of long-term plans.

The Collective UK has instead brought in a new team member for every extra £1m of turnover. Such careful, considered growth has worked really well, its co-founder thinks: "It's about focus, which means reining in ideas and cutting out more than we're addin.

"It's not about saying: let's conquer the world overnight."

"We try to make it fun and friendly," says Harvey, who compares the process of coming up with new flavours to working at Willy
Wonka’s chocolate factory. The business has mixed its yogurts with Kirsch, Christmas pudding, beetroot, pumpkin, gingerbread and coffee.

"It’s all about taste," she adds. "The product is very much at the centre of the business, but we try not to take it too seriously."